PEN America has announced its 2021 longlist for its annual literary awards, and it features seven African writers in three categories.
The categories include: the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the PEN Translation Prize.
Akwaeke Emezi’s most recent novel, “The Death of Vivek Oji”, has been longlisted for PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, which goes with $75,000.
The novel is shortlisted for “its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.”
For the PEN Open Book Award, which awards $10 thousand to the winner, Leila Chatti and Hafizah Geter were the two African writers longlisted. While Chatti was longlisted for “Deluge”, Geter was longlisted for “Un-American”. The works are both poetry.
For the Translation Prize, “A Country for Dying” , by Abdellah Taïa; “Mansour’s Eyes”, by Emma Ramadan; “Our Riches”, by Kaouther Adimi, and “That Hair”, by Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida have been longlisted.
The shortlist will be announced in February.
